Field tested

And cold weather approved!

Remember this?

I've been wearing it the last five days because baby it's cold outside. Like our high today was 22⁰ F cold. And I've been toasty warm. Take that, winter!

The only good thing

About our return to winter weather is that I can wear my finished coat without looking ridiculous. In the end, I went with buttons and embraced the straight nature of the coat. The finished tie will just hang on the hanger, and live a useless life.

I was tempted to try to do my button holes by hand (and Melody very kindly provided me with a helpful link) but in the end, I quailed at the amount of work involved and buckled down with my sewing machine. Even though I couldn't make the key hole button holes because of how thick the fabric is, these turned out fine.

Also, I was photobombed by Eddie. What a ham he is.

I kept blinking as Kent took the photos so
this is my attempt to open my eyes WIDE.

Just in time for spring

I’ve finished my coat. And just in time for the warm weather we’re expecting this weekend. Yes, I do want credit for the change in weather – I’m positive it’s entirely due to me making a coat in the last four days.

I’m mostly pleased with the coat. The wool is amazing and the lining is wonderful. I was looking at the inside of a dress coat I have from Ann Taylor and one Kent has from Banana Republic and I have to say, the linings on both those coats is clearly thinner and inferior to the stuff I used in my coat this week.

I am undecided if I like how bathrobe-y it is. I am considering putting buttons on the front and just embracing the straight, no shape nature of the coat. Fortunately I don’t need to make that decision just yet.

I will say that my back vent is not a thing of beauty. I need someone to hold my hand and walk me through that process with really clear directions and lots of patience. I got it done but I’ll never brag about it.

I’ve got one more wool item to sew before spring officially arrives. I had enough of the windowpane plaid left over to cut out a skirt so that’s next. Then I’m moving on to fabric suitable for warmer weather.

Without the sash and in front
of the little bit of remaining snow

Showing off the lining -- but not the vent

Excuse the goofy expression, Kent
made me giggle. Here it is with the sash.

Mostly fussy and unadorned

Last December, I read this article about jewelry and about what styles we each like – the author has pulled together what she calls a sort of Myers-Briggs profile, only for jewelry. Based on the article, I’m fairly fussy and fully unadorned. In fact, I think my fussiness comes from how unadorned I prefer to be. That’s not to say I don’t like jewelry or don’t wear it because that’s not the case. It’s more that the jewelry I do wear is more pared down, and generally simpler. You would never call my jewelry blingy, although I do appreciate bling – on others.

The same thing can be said about my clothing. I’ve finally realized that what draws me to a particular piece of clothing is not so much the design but the fabric. I’ve bought some really not so great pieces, all because I love the fabric so much.

I got this material from Fabric Mart probably two years ago from the first year we belonged to Julie’s Picks. What I like about Julie’s Picks is that I can not only see the fabric but touch it. This is a Marc Jacobs brushed wool and it’s black with an almost twilight/cobalt blue pattern to it. It feels absolutely amazing.

At first, I thought I would make this Marcy Tilton coat. But take a look at it – there are a lot of fairly blingy features in this coat and I know myself. I’d feel really weird wearing something with all those design features, or else I’d leave out most of them. Then I found this Vogue coat – perfect for me. All I needed was coat lining and courage. The coat lining was easy – I got it from the Chicago Vogue Fabric Store (whatever did we do before the Internet?).

La Sewista just finished making an amazing cashmere coat. She made a comment about the pattern she chose – she said it was rather like a bathrobe. Well her pattern isn’t exactly the same as mine but it’s pretty darn close. And I can make a bathrobe, I've done it before several times. So I found my courage.

I cut it out yesterday using my painfully dull scissors. The wool is really thick and it was difficult to cut, and my scissors didn’t help. I tried my Fiskars and they were wretched. So I turned to the scissors you see here. The ones on the left are a pair of Wiss scissors I bought when I was 19. They cost $30 which was a lot of money for me then, and they’ve been worth it. But that was – yikes – 1979 and they need to be sharpened. The pair on the right are made by Marks and are from my grandmother. They also need to be sharpened. But I got through the ordeal, not without some swearing I will confess. And today I started sewing.

I’m about halfway done and so far, it’s going well. My secret hope is that I finish the coat and warm weather magically arrives and I don’t need it again until next November. Hey, a girl can dream.